International Healthcare >> Gregg Blesch Gregg Blesch Another U.S.-Israeli friendship Patient-safety collaboration seeks broader Middle East participation ulon Stacey is so excited about Web conferencing that you’d to warm up the frozen peace process.” wonder if he doesn’t get out much, which isn’t the case. So far appeals made to the medical directors of four Palestinian hos- He’s president and CEO of Poudre Valley Health Sys- pitals in the West Bank have been declined or unanswered, tem, which has two hospitals in northern Colorado and Reznikovich says. Rserves communities scattered into neighboring Wyoming and “No matter what is our personal opinion in our home, walking in Nebraska, and he has friends far from the Rocky Mountains. Stacey the hospital we think about the best for our patients, regardless if they and two friends and colleagues in Israel have enlisted a handful of are Arabs, Jews, Christians,” Reznikovich says. “As you can see in any their peers to work together across huge distances toward improv- Israeli hospital, there are patients from every belief. When they are ing healthcare in what they’ve named the International patients, they are patients.” Patient Safety Collaborative. Although he is ambitious in his belief that a shared health- “We’re learning things from each other from across con- care mission might budge an intractable political impasse, tinents,” Stacey says, recalling a recent Web conference on he’s also realistic about how the political climate could deter- hospital-acquired infections conducted with healthcare pro- mine whether such collaboration can happen. fessionals stretching from the West Coast of the U.S. “It’s 100 miles above your head and your capacity,” to Jerusalem. Reznikovich says. He adds, though, that the invitations “Just listening to them, I thought: ‘Holy mackerel! I think will continue to be made, and he hopes that the Palestin- we’ve got something here,’ ” Stacey says. “This was just a ian hospitals will be represented at a meeting in June to be dream a year ago or so.” held in Jerusalem. Anything resembling results remains many months Stacey: “This was Under the umbrella of the collaborative, two networks removed, but the collaboration’s progress has been substan- just a dream a year have been established. One targets hospital-acquired infec- tial. Two years ago Stacey, along with Shmuel Reznikovich, ago or so.” tions and the other is focused on medication errors, both administrator of Netanya (Israel) Geriatric Medical Center, using a model derived from the approach of the Institute for and Zvi Stern, director of the Mount Scopus campus of Hadassah Uni- Healthcare Improvement in the U.S. Each participant in a network has versity Hospital in Jerusalem, spotted an opportunity to receive grant written an aims statement, identified things that affect those drivers funding through the Binational Science Foundation, which supports and selected interventions. collaboration between U.S. and Israeli researchers. Each network also has a shared set of goals. For drug events, they They didn’t get the grant but decided to push ahead without fund- include implementing electronic error-reporting and improving use of ing with the groundwork they laid, and an inaugural face-to-face meet- automatic medication dispensers. For infections, they include improv- ing was held September 2008 in Jerusalem. ing handwashing compliance and cutting the incidence of infections The initial inspiration was to include Palestinian hospitals in the caused by particular strains of bacteria by 30% in one year. effort. Reznikovich says there were three underpinnings. The first two Now they’re measuring and sharing, working toward drawing are practical: Improve patient safety and do it without reinventing the some conclusions to share when they convene again in person in wheel by sharing knowledge. The third is hopeful: “Maybe we’ll be able Jerusalem in June 2010. After the current networks conclude, Poudre Valley Health System intends to administer a new one on ventilator- PARTNERS IN PATIENT SAFETY associated pneumonia. Organizations participating, so far, in the Virtually a meeting per month In the meantime, collaboration is happening remotely across many International Patient Safety Collaborative time zones. The networks meet virtually each month in formats that have Assuta Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel been evolving through trial and error, taking place early in the morning in the western U.S. and at 5 p.m. in Israel. The first meetings were via Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel teleconferencing with spotty call quality and a disruptive moderator, Children's Hospital, Aurora, Colo. which proved particularly challenging as members struggled with one another’s accents (the meetings are conducted entirely in English). Hadassah University Medical Center, Jerusalem The discussions have evolved to combine the phone hookup with a Joint Commission International, Oak Brook, Ill. Web-based meeting place, allowing presenters to use visual materials, Kootenai Medical Center, Coeur d©Alene, Idaho and a test session with video conferencing is planned for February. Marly Christenson, system director of clinical transformation for Netanya (Israel) Geriatric Medical Center Seattle-based Providence Health & Services, agreed to administer the Poudre Valley Health System, Fort Collins, Colo. network on hospital-acquired infections, in effect absorbing four of the Providence Health & Services, Seattle Israeli hospitals into a project that was previously planned for the sys- tem, which owns or sponsors 24 hospitals in Alaska, California, Mon- St. Luke's Health System, Kansas City, Mo. tana, Oregon and Washington state. Shoham Geriatric Medical Center, Pardes Hanna, Israel “There’s an additional experience in this international collabora- tion that adds one more level of incentive and motivation—this sense Source: International Patient Safety Collaborative of really contributing globally to patient safety,” Christenson says. 32 Modern Healthcare • November 30, 2009.